Category Archives: Medium

mediums

Ye olde London streete

Ye olde London streete ([London], 1884). Peepshow [also called a tunnel book] with 6 watercolored panels. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019 in process

Between the Cotsen Children’s Library and the Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton holds a large collection of European and American tunnel books. Here is one of our newest acquisitions.

 


In this example, the panels are attached to each other with cloth sides, making the whole easily foldable, like an accordion book. It offers a view of an imaginary old London street that was reconstructed at the International Health Exhibition of 1884. The street was made out of real houses, some four or five stories high and was built to give a contrast to the modern sanitary advancements. It proved to be the most visited exhibition.

The artist’s initials “G.C.S.” are struck through in pencil, followed by what we presume to be the owner’s name: Mary Dorothea. The piece is also signed at the back with the initials G.C.S. and manuscript note on the scenery, “Taken from the street in old London shown at the Health Exhibition 1884”.

In 1884 London hosted an International Health Exhibition under the patronage of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, and directed by an Executive Council. The Exhibition was held in South Kensington, on a site between the Royal Albert Hall and the newly-opened Natural History Museum, on land which is now occupied by Imperial College of Science and Technology. Four million people visited the Exhibition between 8 May and 30 October 1884 (http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/library/2016/07/07/international-health-exhibition-1884/)

Here are a few more of our peepshows:
1. [Milan Cathedral peepshow]
[S.l. : s.n., 18–]. Graphic Arts Collection » 2007-0615N
2. Optique no. 12 : les Boulevards.
[Paris? : s.n., 18–]. Graphic Arts Collection » 2007-0609N
3. Optique no. 8 : le Parc de Versailles.
[Paris? : s.n., 18–]. Graphic Arts Collection » 2013-0443N
4. [Reims Cathedral peepshow]
[S.l. : s.n., 18–]. Graphic Arts Collection » 2007-1260N
5. Teleorama.
[S.l. : s.n., 18–]. Graphic Arts Collection » 2007-0688N
6. A View of the tunnel under the Thames, as it will appear when completed: the carriage ways will be circular : foot passengers will descent the shafts by stairs : dimensions of the tunnel, length fr…
[London] : Pubd. … by M. Gouyn, August. 1, 1829. Rare Books » 2010-0864N
7. Thames tunnel.
[London? : s.n., 184-?]. Rare Books » Oversize 2007-0169Q
8. A Brief account of the Thames Tunnel.
[London] : Azulay, Thames Tunnel, [1851?]. Rare Books » 2011-0054N
9. Ye Olde London streete.
[London : s.n., 1884?]. Graphic Arts Collection » N-001924
10. Grand théâtre en actions.
Paris : A. Capendu, éditeur, [189-?]. Cotsen Children’s Library » Moveables 19Q 44369
11. [Noah’s Ark] / devised by Jack S. Chambers.
[London : Werner Laurie, (not after 1950)]. Cotsen Children’s Library » Moveables 14964
12. Fünfhundert Jahre Buchdruckerkunst, 1440-1940 : über hundert Jahre Bauersche Giesserei, Frankfurt a.M., gegründet 1837.
[Frankfurt am Main : Bauersche Giesserei, 1940]. Cotsen Children’s Library » Moveables 30196 and Graphic Arts Collection » 2007-0617N
13. Tony Sarg’s treasure book : Rip Van Winkle, Alice in Wonderland, and Treasure Island.
[New York : B.F. Jay], c 1942. South East (CTSN) » Toys 11990

Mocha Dick

Randall Enos, The Life & Death of Mocha Dick (Brooklyn, NY: Strike Three Press, 2009). Copy 15 of 32. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

Abstract: “In 1841, Herman Melville sailed out to the whaling grounds of the South Pacific where he heard the legend of Mocha Dick. This huge bull sperm whale was known to attack whaling ships and battle his pursuers as they tried to harpoon him. Melville turned the whaler’s quest of Mocha Dick into the story of Captain Ahab and Moby Dick. Randall Enos tells the story of Mocha Dick, the hero of whales, and depicts the whale’s great battles and legendary encounters in a suite of eleven linoleum cuts.”–Strike Three Press.

 

J. N. Reynolds. “Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific,” in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine 13, no. 5 (May 1839): 377–92.

J.N. Reynolds, Mocha Dick, or The White Whale of the Pacific (London; Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson, [1870?]). Rare Books 3906.39.364.1900

Public Typewriter


Now through July 27, 2019, is the exhibition “New Typographics: Typewriter Art as Print,” featuring Lenka Clayton, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Gustave Morin, Elena del Rivero and Allyson Strafella, at the Print Center, 1614 Latimer Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103: http://printcenter.org/100/siena-and-new-typographics/

The exhibition highlights work by artists who use the typewriter as a matrix for forming text into image. Typically referred to as typewriter “art” or typewriter “drawings,” this exhibition posits that artworks created with a typewriter should be recognized as prints, in light of the mechanism and process of their production.

“I use the typewriter against itself. It was built to draft first chapters of novels and resignation letters; I use it to draw my son’s eyelashes and knitted socks . . . . I really enjoy that this process allows me to focus on those very simple forms and moments that are, perhaps, usually overlooked.”–Lenka Clayton

While you are there, you can “Create Your Own Typewriter Print.” The Print Center will host a “Public Typewriter” as part of Philly Typewriter’s “Philadelphia Public Typewriter Program.” Philly Typewriter is a retail typewriter store located in Philadelphia that also repairs typewriters and hosts classes and events. A temporary loan of a manual typewriter prepared for use by typewriter restoration classes at Philly Typewriter will allow visitors to make their own typewriter prints.

On Thursday, May 2, at 6:00 p.m. curator Ksenia Nouril will give a talk on the history of typewriter prints, highlighting key moments and artists that were influential to the thinking around the exhibition.

Concrete poets Dom Sylvester Houédard and Gustave Morin highlight the typewriter print’s immense potential for both visual and linguistic communication. In concrete poetry, the representation of language supersedes its legibility and even meaning. The results are wildly whimsical and fantastically funny renderings that allude to historical and imaginary people, places, and things.

Houédard, whom Morin calls “The Great Typewriter Poet,” was a Benedictine priest in post-World War II England. His typewritten visual poems, which he named “typestracts,” were developed together with leading conceptual writers and artists of the period, including but not limited to William S. Burroughs, Bob Cobbing, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Allen Ginsberg and Yoko Ono.–Press release

http://printcenter.org/100/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/TPC_Siena_Typewriter_Gallery-Notes-1.pdf

Dom Sylvester Houédard

Drawings for the Iliad [no drawings included]

Lithographs after drawings

 

Richard Lattimore’s now-classic translation of Homer’s The Iliad was first published by the University of Chicago Press in 1951. A decade later, the Press invited the artist Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) to produce drawings for a lavish illustrated edition, which came out in 1962.


That same year a deluxe portfolio of 150 lithographs [seen at the top] after Baskin’s pen and ink wash drawings was published by Delphic Arts in New York, with the title Drawings for the Iliad. The first 90 copies included an additional three etchings, which were also distributed separately (two copies of each etchings) under the same title. If that isn’t complicated enough, an exhibition of Baskin’s drawings traveled to multiple venues in 1962 and an exhibition catalogue published under the same title.

Princeton University is fortunate to have all the variations of publications reproducing Baskin’s drawings, albeit without any original pen and ink wash drawings.

Homer, The Iliad. Translated with an introduction by Richmond Lattimore. Drawings by Leonard Baskin ([Chicago] University of Chicago Press [1962]). Graphic Arts Collection Oversize PA4025.A2 L35 1962q
“In addition to the generous size, the forty-eight full-page illustrations are printed on a rich ivory paper, especially manufactured to reproduce as flawlessly as possible the color and texture of the paper used by Leonard Baskin in creating the original drawings.” The book was offered at an introductory price of $11.50 after which it would be sold for $13.50.

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), Drawings for the Iliad [by] Leonard Baskin [an exhibition at the] Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [and the] Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon ([Chicago, Art Institute, 1962]). Graphic Arts Collection 2012-0145Q
“Delphic Arts has acquired the sixty drawings for the Iliad in conjunction with their publication of a deluxe portfolio. This exhibition has been prepared and organized by Delphic Arts, New York City”–T.p. verso.

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), Drawings for the Iliad (New York: Delphic Arts, 1962). [68] leaves of plates. Copy 27 of 150. Marquand Library Oversize NE539.B2 A4e
“150 copies … have been published … The paper throughout is Fabriano … text … printed at the Gehenna Press … quotations are Lattimore’s translation … The edition has been arranged as follows. Copies number one through ninety are accompanied by three original etchings by Leonard Baskin …

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), Drawings for the Iliad (with six original signed etchings by Leonard Baskin: two impressions each of “Hephaistos”, “Ares”, and “Homer”) (New York: Delphic Arts, 1962). Edition: 60

Idylls of Rural Life

Charles Shannon (1863-1937), The Garden Plot, from the series Idylls of Rural Life, ca. 1898. Chiaroscuro woodcut. Reproduced in The International Studio, 59 (October 1916). Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Sally M. and William B. Rhoads, ’66 *75.

 

“The First Exhibition of Original Engraving” was held at E.J. Van Wisselingh’s Dutch Gallery on Old Bold Street in 1898 with work by Charles Ricketts, Charles Shannon, Sturge Moore, Reginald Savage, and Lucien Pissarro. As described 18 years later in The International Studio, Shannon’s contribution featured a series of 12 chiaroscuro woodcuts. These small rondels chronicled the “Idylls of Rural Life,” throughout the seasons of the year, printed in dark green-grey, buff yellow, and white inks.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired one print from this series entitled “The Garden Plot,” thanks to the generous donation of Sally M. and William B. Rhoads, ’66 *75. As an undergraduate, William Rhoads was inspired to begin collecting prints after attending Robert Koch’s seminar “Art of the Print.” Rhoads was also kind enough to add a print by Shannon’s frequent partner, Charles Ricketts [see below].

Article continues

 

 

 

Charles S. Ricketts (1866-1931), Floods (Inondation), ca. 1895. Wood engraving in black on wove paper. Reproduced in Album VII from L’Estampe originale. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Sally M. and William B. Rhoads, ’66 *75.

Photographs of Caesar and unidentified young woman

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a 19th-century cased image of an unidentified woman that was sent through the mail. The ninth-plate ambrotype (2 1/2 x 2 inches) is a formal studio portrait of an African American woman with earrings and brooch hand-colored in gold. A note on the case reads: “Mr. Scroggins, Portsmouth Va., Box 1036,” crossed out to read “601” and stamped “ADVERTISED” by the dead-letter office. We presume the date to be late 1850s or early 1860s.

This portrait was delivered through the mail to a Virginia address, but was undeliverable, and marked “ADVERTISED” by the post office. It was found among other similar photographs from a dead-letter office. Was Mr. Scroggins a plantation owner being offered a new house slave or a free African American gentleman getting a picture of a family member? There are many potential connections:

https://bellegrove.org/about/enslaved : The name Scroggin turns up in a note “secured” by Jno Scroggin to pay for the freedom of an enslaved man at Bellegrave Plantation, Virginia. Mr. Scroggin might have been active in securing the freedom of others.

 

The selection above is taken from Temple Tsenes-Hills, I Am the Utterance of My Name (2006), which tells the story of Frances Jane Scroggins, born enslaved in Virginia but emancipated. Might this be connected?

Might the portrait have some connection with this document [above] certifying the freedom of Matthew Scroggins? Not Virginia but also not far away. If you can help us with this intriguing story, please send your research suggestions or results.

The second cased image recently acquired by Graphic Arts has a named sitter:

This sixth-plate ambrotype is a formal studio photograph of Caesar, an officer’s servant near Washington. A small note traveling with the case reads: “W DeW Pringle body servant Caesar while serving in the Civil War, 1862.”

The dealer’s note provides additional research:

A sharp and striking portrait of an Army servant, very likely a freedman, taken during the early period of the war. Contrabands escaping to freedom did not yet have the option of military service before 1863, but often found employment as personal servants for army officers.

Caesar’s employer Lieutenant William DeWolf Pringle (1840-1930) of Lockport, NY, was chosen as an officer for the 22nd New York Light Artillery Battery in September of 1862, which became part of the 9th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment in early 1863; he served there through October 1864. His unit served on the defenses of Washington through May 1864, and then went out on the Overland and Shenandoah Valley campaigns.

His father Benjamin Pringle (1807-1887) has served two terms as a United States Congressman, and in 1863 was appointed by President Lincoln to serve as a judge in South Africa on a special court for prosecuting the international slave trade. After the war, Lieutenant Pringle was a lawyer in Hastings, Minnesota, near where this ambrotype was found.

Graver pour le roi

Gilles Rousselet and Israel Silvestre, frontispiece for Charles Perrault, Courses de testes et de bague, faites par le Roy, et par les Princes et Seigneurs de sa cour en l’année 1662. Paris, 1670. Copper plate and engraving.

On view through May 20, 2019, at the Louvre is the exhibition Graver pour le roi: Collections historiques de la Chalcographie du Louvre. http://presse.louvre.fr/graver-pour-le-roi/. The press release notes:

Exceptionally bringing together more than a hundred works, the exhibition traces the origins of the Chalcography of the Louvre with nearly seventy engraved matrices of its collection, presented in relation to drawings of the Department of Graphic Arts of the Louvre Museum and prints from the Edmond de Rothschild collection and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Gérard Edelinck, after Charles Le Brun, La Famille de Darius aux pieds d’Alexandre
https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/item/924

Many of the copper plates on view are matrices for the prints Princeton students and visitors enjoyed a few years ago in the exhibition Versailles on Paper. https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/

Our prints were acquired by Princeton University in 1886 in an exchange with the Bibliothèque nationale (Paris), thanks to John S. Pierson, Class of 1840, who effected the exchange, recorded by the BN as “Double échangé” no. 907. Volker Schröder, Associate Professor of French in the Department of French & Italian, researched and clarified this information for his essay in the Princeton University Library Chronicle dedicated to our exhibition. http://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/content/chronicle-article-abstracts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/06/12/louis-xiv-visits-the-royal-academy-of-sciences/

In the galleries, the polished copper and steel-plated matrices are brightly lit and difficult to photograph without reflection. Happily the catalogue to the show, coming soon to Princeton, has excellent reproductions of both the printing plates and the paper prints.

Charles Nicolas Cochin fils, Pompe funebre d’Elisabeth Therese de Lorraine, Reine de Sardaigne ... [Interior of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, decorated for the funeral of Elizabeth Theresa, Queen of Sardinia], 1743. Copper plate and engravings.

 

Gerard Edelinck after Nicolas de Largilliere, Portrait of Charles Le Brun, 1684. https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/item/923

A loose translation of one label:

The Chalcography of the Louvre is rich in a collection of some 14,000 engraved plates, the oldest of which date back to the 17th century. When it was founded in 1797, the new institution was given the role of preserving and exploiting three important sets of engraved plates seized during the French Revolution: those of the King’s Cabinet, the Pleasures Menus, and of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. The Cabinet of the King , born from the will of Louis XIV and Colbert, gathers 956 prints showing the castles, statues and paintings belonging to the king. Designed to spread the image of the magnificence of power, these boards are the work of the best engravers of time, such as Claude Mellan, Gerard Audran, Gérard Edelinck.

Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin, L’Eucharistie – Das letzte Abendmahl, [1680-1694]

 

Detail

 

A reply to our Charles Ricketts question

http://charlesricketts.blogspot.com/

On 22 March, 2019, we posted a drawing from the Graphic Arts Collection that may or may not have been the work of Charles Ricketts: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2019/03/22/rickettss-drawings-published-and-unpublished/. A special note was sent to Paul van Capelleveen, curator of Rare Books at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands, who researches and writes the weekly blog “Charles Ricketts & Charles Shannon.”

 

Today, a reply was posted by Mr. Capelleveen, with information on Ricketts’s career around the date of this drawing and a possible answer to our question. Take a look at his intriguing solution to the puzzle and see what you think: http://charlesricketts.blogspot.com

Our sincere thanks for all his hard work, which not only helps Princeton University but adds significantly to everyone’s understanding of Ricketts’s art and the iconography of the Sphinx. Isn’t this new international world of shared scholarship wonderful?

Photo Book Show

Only one more day left to attend The Photography Show at Pier 94. The longest-running and foremost exhibition dedicated to the photographic medium, the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) has mounted the 39th edition of the show featuring nearly 100 of the world’s leading fine art photography galleries.

Each year the photobook portion of the show has grown larger and more international, including the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East, and South America. Book dealers, publishers, and photography-related organizations include:

10×10 Photobooks, New York
21st Editions, South Dennis, MA
AKIO NAGASAWA Gallery | Publishing, Tokyo
American Photography Archives Group, APAG, New York
Aperture Foundation, New York
Artbook | D.A.P., New York
Benrido, Kyoto
Brilliant Graphics, Exton, PA
Candor Arts, Chicago, IL
Citizen Editions, Brooklyn, NY
Conveyor Editions, Jersey City, NJ

DAMIANI, Bologna, Italy
Daylight Books, Durham, NC
Dust Collective, Stow, MA
GOST Books, London
Harper’s Books, East Hampton, NY
KOMIYAMA TOKYO, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
KGP – Kris Graves Projects, Long Island City, NY
L’Artiere, Bologna, Italy
Light Work, Syracuse, NY
MACK, London
Minor Matters Books, Seattle, WA
Nazraeli Press, Paso Robles, CA
photo-eye, Santa Fe, NM
Photograph Magazine, New York
Saint Lucy Books, Baltimore, MD
STANLEY/BARKER, Shropshire, UK
SUPER LABO, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
TBW Books, Oakland, CA
The Classic, Arnaville, France
TIS Books, Brooklyn, NY
Yoffy Press, Atlanta, GA
Zatara Press, Richmond, VA

The Wonderful Magazine and Marvellous Chronicle

The Wonderful Magazine Or Marvellous Chronicle; Or New Weekly Entertainer. A Work Recording Authentic Accounts of The Most Extraordinary Productions, Events, And Occurrences, In Providence, Nature, And Art… (London: Printed for the Proprietors, Published By C. Johnson, 1793).    Volumes 1-5. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- In process.

 

Portrait of an innkeeper known as Mother Louse of Louse Hall, a famous establishment outside the city of Oxford; fanciful coat of arms bottom center: three lice surmounted by a tankard, motto on banner underneath, ‘Three liese pas-sant’ (a re-issue).

Henry Jenkins, 169-years-old.

The following Forty Numbers of this Work (making only Sixty in the whole) will be enriched with a great Variety of engravings, equally extraordinary, Wonderful, Marvellous, Astonishing, and Interesting, too numerous to mention here. every future Number will therefore be Embellished with One or two most Elegant engravings, consisting of the most Extraordinary, Wonderful, and Rare Productions in Nature and Art, drawn and engraved by eminent Artists, among which will be included many Large Quarto Copper-plates, containing extraordinary Representations, which cannot be included in a less Size.

The frontispiece of the first volume is labeled, “The Art of Lying Burlesqued in an Account of A Wonderful Flight or Journey from France to Gibraltar, America, &c. Related by an Eminent Author,” which may refer to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) included in serial form throughout the first three volumes.

 

The story of John Bigg, the Dinton Hermit, who only wore leather.

Margaret Finch, Queen of the Norwood Gypsies, Died 1740, Aged 108 years.

 

“Old Boots of Rippon in Yorkshire” shown with his ability to hold a coin between the tips of his nose and chin.

Subtitled: “Consisting entirely of Such Curious Matters as come under the Denominations of Miraculous!, Queer!, Odd!, Strange!, Supernatural!, Whimsical!, Absurd!, Out Of The Way! and Unaccountable! including Genuine Accounts of the most surprising Escapes from Death – Deliverances from Dangers – Strange Discoveries of long concealed Murders – Strange and Unaccountable Accidents – The Surprising Phenomena of Nature – Absurd and Ridiculous Customs peculiar to different Ages and Nations – Dreadful Shipwrecks – Heroic Adventures – Uncommon Instances of Courage, Strength, Longevity, or Long Life, Accounts of Persons Famous for Eating, Drinking, Fasting, Walking, or Sleeping – Interesting and extraordinary Anecdotes – Memorable Exploits – Perilous Adventures – Strange Effects of Imagination in Pregnant Women – And whatever else is calculated to promote Mirth or Entertainment, or what is Wonderful, Marvellous, or Astonishing. – The Whole carefully Collected from the Writings of the most approved Historians, Travellers, Astrologers, Physicians, Physiognomists, Philosophers, &c. of all Ages and Countries. – Embellished with a great Variety of Elegant Copper Plates accurately Engraved.”

 

Mademoiselle de Beaumont, or the Chevalier d’Eon. Female Minister Plenipo. Capt. of Dragoons Etc. Etc.
See also: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/07/23/fencing-update/